Heavy fighting in the Donetsk region of Ukraine has continued for almost eight years now. 

The Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia separatists are engaged in grueling trench warfare, where the artillery plays a significant role. CGTN was given access to pro-Russian forces' positions at the frontline close to Donetsk. 

Our first attempt to visit the frontline, close to the suburb of Pisky, ended in a bang – actually, a series of loud bangs, when we found ourselves surrounded by rocket fire. We had to take cover and to wait for the onslaught to end. 

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When a brief lull came, we rushed back to a safer area where we waited to make the second attempt to visit another part of the frontline. 

That part is held by the Pyatnashka international brigade of volunteers, a pro-Russian force. The militia was formed eight years ago after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine, leading to an uprising of Russian supporters in this region demanding a union with Moscow.

Before heading to the brigade's most forward outpost, we met with the unit's commander, who is known as Abkhaz, after another autonomous region (Abkhazia) in a former Soviet state.

"I'll explain the mood of my men by a horse-racing analogy," Abkhaz began. "They are like when you put the horse in the starting machine and just before the doors are open for the race. That's how they feel. Pounding hooves into the ground, eager to start."

The brigade's outpost is just 100 meters from Ukrainian positions and getting there wasn't an easy task. At times we had to take cover and mostly run around one kilometer to avoid the snipers.

The outpost is very close to the town of Avdeevka, which is now a hotspot of the most intense fighting between the two sides. The pro-Russian fighters asked us to limit the details of our location to "close to Avdeevka" to avoid giving away their exact position. 

The commanders allowed us to stay there for just 15 minutes because the fighting is a daily occurrence here. An array of spent cartridges around this improvised part of the frontline are the silent witnesses of those battles.

The soldiers we met there are not the best equipped, and they are not in their prime. But they are very determined they are fighting for the right cause, as the fighter that goes under the name of Grach told us. 

"The supporters of Nazism and fascism arrived here from all over Europe, from Ukraine, from the entire world," he said, repeating Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that the operation's aim is to "denazify" the country – a claim strongly denied by Ukraine.

"Their grand and great-grandchildren – all of them are on the other side of this frontline. But soon, all of that will be over. Good always prevails," Grach said. 

Dealing with the dark and harsh conditions of their shelter with their feet in the ankle-deep mud, using a coal-burning improvised stove isn't affecting their morale. They remain on constant alert around the clock until the fighting is over.